In a testing system for testing a relatively large integrated circuit, such as a modern microprocessor for example, an integrated circuit contactor (also named a fuzz button contactor) has a respective fuzz button loaded into each of 321 button holes. Each fuzz button is a conductive granule that provides a conductive path from an integrated circuit package testing system to a respective one of 321 pins from the integrated circuit package for holding the relatively large integrated circuit.
Referring to FIG. 1, a top view of an example fuzz button contactor 102 shows a plurality of button holes. An example button hole 104 holds an example fuzz button 106. A fuzz button contactor has at least one row of a predetermined number of button holes. A fuzz button contactor used for testing the integrated circuit package for a modern microprocessor has a total of 321 button holes for example. However, for clarity of illustration, the fuzz button contactor 102 of FIG. 1 has eight rows of five button holes including a first row 108 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), a second row 110 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), a third row 112 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), a fourth row 114 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), a fifth row 116 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), a sixth row 118 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), a seventh row 120 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1), and an eighth row 122 (shown by a dashed line in FIG. 1).
In the prior art, a respective fuzz button is manually placed into each of the button holes of the fuzz button contactor 102. A human operator examines a fuzz button visually to determine that the fuzz button is not defectively shaped such that the fuzz button would fit into a button hole. Then, the human operator manually places the fuzz button into an empty button hole on the fuzz button contactor 102. However, such manual inspection and placement of a respective fuzz button into each of the button holes of the fuzz button contactor 102 requires much time and labor, especially when the fuzz button contactor is used for testing a relatively large integrated circuit package such as a fuzz button contactor having 321 button holes.
Thus, a mechanism is desired for more efficiently filtering out defectively shaped fuzz buttons and for more efficiently placing a respective fuzz button into each of a high number of button holes on the fuzz button contactor.